Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-08-26
THE FACTS PROVED.
The World To-Day Full Of Testimony
of the Silent Influence Of the
Christian Religion,
Its Power TO Convert the Soul, to Give
Comfort in Trouble and to Afford
Composurs in the Lass Hour.
The Affidavits of the Best Men and Women
Living and Dead-Thou ands of
Witnesses Attest.

Special to the Gazette.
THE HAMPToNs, Aug. 2l.--"The Facts
Proved" is the subject OF discourse by
the Rev. T. De Witt Tslmsge, D. D, to-
day. His text is from the 18Th verse Of
Acts III: ''We are witnesses" FolloT-
ing is his sermon in full:
Ia the days Of George Stephenson, the
peril ctor of the locomotive engine, the
scientists proved conclusivelY thst rail-
way train could never be driven by steam
power successfully and without peril, but
the rushing express trains from Liverpool
to Edinburgh, and from Edinburgh to
London, have made sll the nation wit
nesses Of the splendid achievement. Ma
| chinists and navigators proved Conclu-
sively that steam could never cross
the Atlantic ocean, but no sooner had
they successfully proved the impossibility
OF such an undertaking than the work was
done, and the passengers OF the Cunard,
ard the Inmap, and the National, and The
White Stsr lines are witnesses.
There went up guffaw Of wise
laughter st Professor Morse's
proposition to make the lightning
Of heaven his errand boy, and 1t was
| proved cOnclusVely that the thing could
never be done; but now all the news of
| the wide world, by Associated Press put
in your hands every morning and night,
has made ell nations witnesses.
Sc in toe tine Of Cnrist 1t was proved
conclusively that it was impossible for
| him to rise from the dead. 1t was shown
| logically that when q man Was dead, be
was dead, and the heart ald the liver and
| the lungs having ceased to perform their
| offices, the limbs would be rigid beyond
ell power of friction or arOussl. Tney
| showed il TO be an absolute absurdity
! that the dead Christ should ever get up
alive; Jut no sooner had they proved
! this than tae dead Christ arose, and the
disciples beheld him, heard his voice, and
talked with him, and they took the wit
ness stand 70 prove that TO be true which
the wlseacres Of the Gay had proved 10 be
| Impossible; the record OF the experiment
sud CT the testimony il in the text: Him
| hAth GGd raised from the dead, whereof
We sre Witnesses"
Now, lei me play the skaptic for mo-
ment. "rhera is no Cod" says the
SkepGiC, DIOR | have never seen him with
my physical eyCsight. Your Bible is q
| pack OF contradictions. There never was
q nirale. Lazarus was not raised from
| the dead, AMI the water YVES never turned
into wine. Yo1r religion is az imposition
| on the credullty OF the sge5." There is
81 aged man moving in that pew as
though he would like 10 respond. Here
ere hundreds Of people with faces e little
| flushed at these announcements, and Gil
through this house there is 6
suppressed feeling which would like to
speak out il behalf CT the truth of our
glorious Christianity, as IN the days Of
the text, crying out:
"wE ARE WITNESSES!'
The fact is, that if this world IS ever
brought to Cod, it viii! rot be through ar
gum mt, but through testimony You
might cover the whole earth with apollo
gi5s for Christianity and learned treatises
in defense Of religion-you would not
convert a;soul. Lectures on the harmony
between science and religion are beauti-
ful mental discipline, but have never
saved a soul, and never will save soul.
Pat man Of the world and man OF the
Church agsinst each other, and the man
OF The world will in all probability get
the triumph. There are a thousand
things in our religion that seem illogical
to the world and always will seem illOgi-
cal.
Our weapon in this conflict is faith,
not logic; faith, not metaphysics; faith,
not protundity; faith, not scholastic eX-
ploration. But then, in order to have
| faith, we must have testimony, ald il 500
men, or 1000 men. or 100000 men, or
) 600, 900 get up and tell me that they
have felt the religion of Jesus Christ g
| 10y, comfort, a help, an inspiration, l
am bound as 4 fair minded man 10 accept
their testimony. l want just now to put
before you three propositions, the truth
OF which l think this audience will attest
with overwhelming unanimity.
The first proposition is: We are wit
nesses that the religion CT Christ is able
TO convert G soul.
TIE Gospel may have bad 3 hard time
TO conquer us,we msy have fought it back,
but we were vanquished. You ssy con-
version Is only
AN IMAGINARY THING.
We know better. 1--WE are Witnesses "
There never WAS SO great change in cur
/ heart and life on suy other subj ct IS Oh
this. People laughed at the missionaries
! in Madagascar because they preached ten
years without one convert; but there are
49, 600 converts in Madagascar to-day.
| People laughed ct DR.. JudsOn, the Bap-
fist missionary, because he kept on
preaching in Burmah five years
without single convert; but there are
twenty thousand Baptists in Burmsh to-
day. People laughed Ct DR.. Morrison, in
China, for preaching there seven years
without q single conversion; but there
are fifteen Thousand Christians in China
to-day. People laugh st the mission
aries for preaching at Tahiti for fifteen
years without single conversion, and st
the missionaries for preaching in Bengal
for seventeen years without g single con-
version; yet in all those lands there are
multltudes of Christians to-day.
! But why go so tsr to find evidence OF
'fftke2SCspel's power to save soul? eve
are Witnesses" We were so proud that
no man could have humbled us; we were
so hard that no earthly power could have
melted US; angels Of God were 81 around
about US, they could not overcome US;
but one dey, perhaps at Methodist anx-
ious sest, or at ia presbyterian cstechet-
icsl lecture, or at burial, or en- horse
back, power seized US and made Us get
down, snd maze US trem5le, and made Us
kneel, and made US cry for mercy, ana
we tried to wrench ourselves awsy from
the grasp, but we could not. II flung US
fat, and when we arose we were es much
changed as Gourgis, the heather, WHO
went into q prsyer- meeting with dagger
and gun, to disturb the meeting 6Td de-
stroy it, but the mex dsy was found
crying: COB! my CREST sins! On! my
great SAVIOR" ard fo7 elevea ys|es
| preached tie zcSpei ot C1ri>S ia ais fcl-
| low ,nountair7t erg, the last words O.. his